von Niederhausern Family

I have been wanting to try making my own yogurt for awhile, and last night I finally did it. It was very easy, but did take a lot of time to heat the milk slowly, let it stay at 180 degrees for 20 minutes, and then cool it slowly before adding the cultures to it. All-in-all it was about a two hour process. Following is the recipe if anyone else wants to give it a try. I added about 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract to this batch and can’t wait to experiment with other things like fruit, etc. Does anyone have tips or secrets for making yogurt? Thanks for this recipe Brooke!

Yogurt
Ingredients: milk (about 1/2 gallon) and 1 cup plain yogurt from store (to get bacteria culture).
Tools: big pot, a couple towels, and a food thermometer.

Step 1.) Heat milk to 180 degrees; make sure to stir a lot and heat slowly enough that it doesn’t burn.
Step 2.) Keep at that temp for 20-30 min. Don’t forget to stir. (The length of time might be optional here.  I’ve heard others say that they don’t do it nearly this long.)
Step 3.) Cool to 113-115 degrees. Add yogurt and stir to mix.
Step 4.) Wrap in towels and place in oven (heat slightly, then turned off) or other warm spot and let sit for 5-8 hours or until firm.
Step 5.) Refrigerate.

Directions are from Harold McGee’s book, On Food and Cooking.  The basic idea is to heat the milk sufficiently to make it safe and so that the proteins in the milk unwind and stretch out (helps it form a solid later).  Then you cool the milk before you add the bacteria so that the bacteria don’t get killed in the hot milk.  Lastly, the bacteria are most active in temps between 95-110 degrees, so wrapping the pot and placing somewhere that retains heat will help preserve the conditions that help the bacteria thrive.  Then you just have to wait. That’s all.  It’s not hard, but it takes a little time.  About 2 hours total.